Vaccine Maker Johnson & Johnson Settles Huge Lawsuit Over Role In Opioid Crisis

Pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson on Friday agreed to a $26 billion settlement to thousands of claims by local and state governments of the alleged role that it and several others played in the U.S. opioid crisis. Distributors McKesson Corp, AmerisourceBergen Corp, and Cardinal Health Inc. joined in on the settlement, agreeing to pay $21 billion over 18 years. Johnson & Johnson said it would pay $5 billion over nine years. “Billions of dollars are now going to flow to treatment, recovery, education, and abating this public health crisis,” Paul Geller, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the Reuters news agency on Friday. “Because of the money, there will be people alive next year who otherwise would have died,” North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein told the outlet. The deal aims to settle about 3,000 lawsuits that were filed by the state and local governments who had sought to hold the …  » Read full article